Think running every single day is only for the super fit? Think again. ‘Run streaking’ is booming, with more and more people jumping on the bandwagon and setting themselves a daily running challenge.
For the uninitiated, you’ll be pleased to hear that it has nothing to do with taking your clothes off. The run streak simply means running on consecutive days, for a set distance, without fail. The rules are simple: run at least one mile every single day on either the roads, a track, over hill and dale, or on a treadmill. Best wireless headphones.
According to Streak Runners International, Inc, one of two official run streak bodies (the other being the United States Running Streak Association), some people have Health & Injuries. Atop the UK active run streak list is Jim Taylor, 68, who started his run streak in 1993 and has a current streak of 10,969 days*. That’s over 30 years of daily runs. While people like Gary McKee – who ran a marathon every day for a year – and Tik Tok running sensation Savannah Mukeshi, who’s been documenting her journey of 589* consecutive days of running on both social media and Strava, have undoubtedly also made run streaking more popular, inspiring other runners to set a new year goal and stick to it.
But while going for a gentle run around the park every day may sound easy enough, it’s worth also considering the implications running daily could have not just on your social life, Winter Arc: The viral TikTok self-help trend health, too.
‘While it’s fine to train every day, recovery is key and it’s important to make sure you don’t put too much pressure on any one body part,’ says Lynne Cantwell, Clinical Director at Six Physio. ‘Running continually loads the joints and bones, in the same way, every day, without giving them any respite.’
Advertisement - Continue Reading Below strength and conditioning work to avoid injury. ‘Running small amounts, such as a mile a day, can be good for general health, but it is important to keep your runs varied as much as you can and make sure you’re supporting the running aspect with strength and conditioning work, to avoid injury.’
Rest days are an integral aspect of running and unless you’re an athlete, running on successive days can be pretty tough going. 'As well as the body needing a reduction in training (known as drop-down weeks) during a training cycle, it also needs time to recover within the weekly microcycles,' says UK Athletics endurance coach Helen Gaunt. 'The time the body is allowed to rest is when it repairs and strengthens ready to build to the next level, or there is a risk of plateau. Rest and recovery are just as important as training.'
Get a running assessment to make sure your running style is efficient, fractures, fatigue, suppressed immune system and inflammation. But says the level of risk is determined by how prone you are to injury, your prior running experience, biomechanics, genetics and other factors.
To negate your risk of injury, Gaunt suggests focusing on good nutrition, especially when it comes to your protein intake after training, which is essential for muscle repair. She also suggests prioritising stretching, foam rolling, yoga, massage, rest/sleep.
To find out the highs – and lows – of run streaking, we caught up with Savannah Mukeshi to find out how she started her streak, and more importantly, how she's kept the streak going…
‘My run streak started by accident’
Savannah started running, like so many others, during lockdown. ‘I went through a rough patch with my family and my partner and I just needed to get outside for 20 minutes, so started going for these really slow little daily jogs,’ she says. ‘Before I realised it, I was already at three weeks. So I didn't start a run streak intentionally.’
Running became a way to distract her from the bleak news. ‘In lockdown, I kept waking up and feeling a lot of sickness – I don’t like to throw around the word anxious – but going for a jog really helped to relieve that heavy feeling in the pit of my stomach.’
‘I felt inspired by a woman I saw run streaking’
Finding the motivation to keep going isn’t always easy, of course. ‘There was this woman that kept on cropping up on my Discovery page on Instagram who had been running every day for 20 years. She ran throughout her pregnancies and never really made a big deal about her runs, she was just showing up every day and doing it. It made me think: why would I let the fear of not starting, stop me from trying something? Why wouldn’t I just give it a go? I was already so far in, why not keep going? I just thought she was so incredible, and that gave me the motivation to continue once I’d started.’
‘The treadmill counts’
Everyone’s rules are slightly different, says Savannah, but she sticks to the one mile-a-day rule – and that run can take place anywhere. ‘But it has to be a dedicated run,’ she adds. ‘A Barry’s Bootcamp class, for example, doesn’t count. It has to be a mile dedicated to running – whether that’s loops around a hospital or up and down the aisle of an aeroplane. It just has to be a mile.’
This means, on the days when it’s chucking it down with rain or the temperature gets below freezing, she can opt to run on a treadmill instead.
‘I’m not naturally a very sickly person’
So what happens if you get poorly and you’re on a run streak? Savannah says she’s lucky in that she rarely gets sick. ‘I don’t remember the last time I was unwell,’ she says. ‘I would never just stay inside all day – even if I was feeling poorly, I’d still leave the house, even just for 10 minutes of fresh air.’
Perhaps it’s a personality trait, she says. ‘When you’re feeling unwell, there’s always a lull – even if just for a moment – when you actually feel okay, and that’s when I’ll go do a really slow 10-minute jog.’
Of course, it’s important to remember that we’re all different and our bodies all react differently to illness. ‘It’s very personal to you – it’s not one size fits all. You can’t measure yourself against someone else. When my partner got Covid, for example, he couldn’t get off the sofa – he was wheezing and coughing and really struggling. Whereas I was quite lucky, I didn’t get Covid and I’m never really ill.’
‘I document everything on Strava’
While Savannah might be best known for documenting her runs via funny TikTok videos and Reels, she also syncs her watch to Strava to track her progress. ‘I document everything on Strava – although there was one day my watch lied, so there’s one day missing in March 2022, but luckily I did a TikTok on that day,’ she says. ‘I like documenting everything because it shows me how far I’ve come – I can look at what I was doing a couple of years ago and compare it to now, which I find really motivational.’
Not only do the stats help aid motivation, but she says the community – both on TikTok and Strava – also help her to stay accountable. ‘It just brings me so much joy to feel included in something.’
‘Not every run is fun, but doing things that are uncomfortable is good for you’
Of course, not every single run is ‘good’. In fact, Savannah would describe at least half of her runs every week as hard. But the one specific run that stands out as particularly difficult was the penultimate long run before the Loosen out muscles with a. ‘It was an 18-mile long run. The week before, I'd run 16 miles which I flew through and really enjoyed it. But when I got to the 18-mile training run, I got about two miles in and just started bawling. I rang my mum and told her “I just can’t do this”. To which she replied something like “you’re a 10th of the way there, you’ve got this”. I pretty much documented the whole run and it was horrible. I’ve never felt pain like it and ended up walking most of the distance, telling myself that time on my feet was important.’
Because she only has to run one mile to complete the run streak, sometimes finding the motivation to keep going any longer than that can be hard. ‘But feeling uncomfortable or that stress is a privilege,’ she says. ‘That may sound preachy but I choose to go running every day, my body allows me to do that – and yes, it might be raining, but I get to go feel the rain on my skin and be outside.’
‘Weight training is a great way to injury-proof your body’
It goes without saying but running every day is a massive toll on the body. Savannah pays tribute to her genetics as to how she’s managed to stay injury-free so far. ‘I do also weight train a couple of times a week. And I stretch quite a lot. Plus, I do run most of my runs really very slowly,’ she says. ‘In fact, if you were to watch me do my recovery runs, you’d probably think I was walking, I’m taking it that slow. I think keeping my heart rate and pace low really helps me to not overexert myself and get injured.’
Savannah says she tends to run about 30-35 miles every week in total. ‘Of course, that figure is very specific to me and my current fitness level.’
‘A run streak isn’t for everyone’
‘I think it would be naive of me to say that I’m not in an extremely privileged position that I get to run every single day. Other people have families and way more responsibilities and stress than I do, and I would hate for it anyone to come to my TikTok page and feel like I’m telling them to do what I do. Running is a really selfish and time-consuming sport. You’re choosing to spend that time alone rather than with your loved ones. I feel lucky that running is part of my working day, but I live by myself and I have zero responsibilities.’
‘If you do want to start streaking – start small’
For those wanting to embark on a new running goal who are worried about starting a run streak and getting injured, Savannah suggests redefining the streak. ‘Maybe do a walking and running streak, or a movement streak – where you do some sort of movement every day. That could be anything from yoga, to a walk to the corner shop, and use Strava to track it,’ she says.
‘I’ll keep run streaking as long as it feels good’
‘The minute running every day starts to impact me negatively, I’ll stop and do something else,’ she says. ‘But, right now, I can’t see a world where I would stop, because the positives by far outweigh the negatives.’
Doing the run streak has taught Savannah to say no, ‘I’m a bit of a people pleaser – I’ll do what other people want to do, and I’m a bit of an introvert. But the run streak has taught me the importance of having downtime and being able to separate myself from other people when I need to.’
‘The runs that I’ve enjoyed the most have been the runs that I thought would be the worst – the runs I really didn’t want to go out and do. But then, you go out and have the best time, and return feeling full of awe for yourself. Doing the run streak has made me feel proud of my body.’
Advertisement - Continue Reading Below Six Physio offers these tips:
- Warts n Hall foam roller. You should be looking to use this to stretch out calves, glutes and ITBs (the muscles which run down the side of the legs) at least three times a week.
- Winter Arc: The viral TikTok self-help trend.
- Add some strength work to your week to build muscle in the legs and hips. This can include squats, lunges and bridges.
- Get a running assessment to make sure your running style is efficient.
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